Extremely
Dangerous - Behind the Scenes

Last Update: 05 October 1999

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It's eleven o'clock in the morning on Monday,
June 21, 1999 - and it's raining. Sort of. It's not a pelting
kind of rain, with definitive drops and wind and clouds. And
it's not a gentle drizzle, the sort of downpour that starts when
you're going out the door for work and ends the minute you come
home. No - this is an intermittent rain, an indecisive splattering
of droplets that's activated the crew of Extremely Dangerous
into a kind of rehearsed routine: throw plastic tarps over the
microphones, monitors and camera equipment; don waterproof jackets;
hold large, multicoloured umbrellas over the actors; wait and
see if it passes quickly.

It does. It's been that sort of morning.
Windy. Cloudy. Sunny. Raining. The raincloud scuds away and the
sun re-appears. The tarps come off. Jackets are slung over the
backs of chairs. Umbrellas are stowed. The continuity crew wipe
down the windshield of the Range Rover that figures prominently
in the scenes they've been rehearsing and filming for the past
two hours. It's time for another take.

Behind the scenes....

So what is Extremely Dangerous all about?
Judging by this morning's action, it's about Sean Bean, wearing
green overalls, a purple shirt and workboots, fiddling about
with some electrical wiring under the road, then sauntering over
to an outdoor café to have a word with Ron Donachie, who
is sitting at a table having a quiet drink. Which is where the
Range Rover with the spotless windshield comes in. As Sean's
character (Neil Byrne) and Donachie's character (Gebbert) chat,
the Range Rover drives ominously down the road towards them.

Gebbert utters a threat: "You're a
dead man, Byrne!" - then gets up and walks away.

The Range Rover screeches to a stop. A
number of evil looking men leap out, only to be dispatched by
Sean - a car door slammed in the face of one, a wine bottle shattered
over the head of another. It is, as films go, one very long scene,
and an extremely technical one at that. Timing is everything.

Director Sallie Aprahamian
discusses the scene
with Sean

Sean, the Range Rover,
and Ron Donachie get ready to run through the sequence